The Artist Life

Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos: A Conversation Part 2

Raymond Torres-Santos, Ph.D., a Professor of Composition and Theory at California State University, Long Beach was born in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. He’s a composer and conductor, and pianist, arranger, and producer of both classical and popular music. He’s also a Board of Directors Member, American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC).

Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos is celebrating thirty years of teaching music. First, at CSU, San Bernardino and now for the last five years at CSU, Long Beach. Part of his motivation for teaching is to give back for all that he has received over the years from mentors.

“I’ve been blessed with so many mentors throughout my years which is why I’m in debt to give to others.”

For the CSULB professor, support has come not only from family and friends but also from professionals in the business. “Coming from all around the world whether they’ve been Cuban, Israeli, Taiwanese, Chinese, European, they have helped me, Argentinians, they have all helped me along the way.”

Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos says that makes it his duty to serve citizens so that the new generation can have a better world.

“It’s really my goal in life to give and that’s been driving me all these years.”

His advice to aspiring musicians is to ask for help. “You need to be in contact with other people and ask questions.”

“I know people who have made it to where you want to be, they will give you answers if you approach them and you ask questions.”

Palacio Magazine asked Professor Torres-Santos about the impact of technology and social media on learning music and starting a career.

“We are living in a daydream life. Our ancestors would have never imagined all the tools that we have, all the diversity in terms of scope, technology. We have no excuse. Everything is available, accessible.”

Raymond Torres-Santos adds positively that the world has become smaller and any questions that we have can found easily on the Internet and YouTube.

“So those who are interested in the arts, particularly in music, you can find the performances of your favorite singer. If you are interested in Opera, you can go and find a performance that happened the night before.”

With or without technology, the music business still offers a diversity of career options.

“We still need musicians, performers, singers, arrangers, orchestrators, engineers, technicians…” And the list goes on. There’s no end to the many opportunities and roads through music careers.

“And then you have niches of a specific styles, specific trends. Whether it’s pop music and in pop music, you have so many genres.” The same is true for all music, Dr. Torres-Santos says.

“We are in the perfect time to do whatever we want…we just have to be focused and know what we want.”

Long Beach is only thirty miles from the headquarters of the music, film and television business. But for some young people in Long Beach, it might as well be a million miles away. The challenge of breaking into the business is a real one for many.

The CSULB professor doesn’t see living in Long Beach as a challenge. “Long Beach is a port city. It’s in California. It’s close to Asia. We have to realize as a port city, this propels us around the world.”

According to Raymond Torres-Santos, you can look at Long Beach as being in the middle of everything. From here, we can “…go to the east coast, to New York, going to Asia and to explore.”

For the Professor, Long Beach is a very diverse place that offers opportunities to anyone coming here.

“We are diverse…but we need to be aware that there are places that are more diverse than us. And therefore we need to be more open….I think what Long Beach needs are more connections.” He warns against people staying in their own niches and environments. The world is too small but that smallness offers any opportunity to learn from others. Sharing music and culture.

Those connections come from our ability to travel anywhere and interact with people and cultures.

But there’s also plenty here for us, as well.

“There’s plenty of art in Long Beach related to theatre, music and art. There’s a great potential here.”

Postscript: Torres-Santos’s biography at CSULB lists a long string of credits including that he’s “…performed and/or commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, National Chinese Orchestra, Warsaw Conservatory of Music Chorus and Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Reading Orchestra, Queens Symphony, North Massachusetts Philharmonic, Soria Symphony (Spain), Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Georgia Symphony Orchestra (Europe), the Canadian, Washington and Los Angeles Opera Orchestras; the (National) symphony orchestras of London, Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Shanghai, Taipei, Virginia, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic; the Youth Symphony of the Americas, American Youth Symphony, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Continuum, New Jersey Chamber Music Society, West Point Woodwind Quintet, Newark Boys Choir, North Jersey Philharmonic Glee Club, North/South Consonance, Quintet of the Americas, Gabrieli Quintet and Voix-Touche; as well as many other independent groups in the USA, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Argentina. His music has been used for television and radio programs as well as choreographed by dance companies.”

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